Exclusive New Clip from THE AMBASSADOR

We here at Collider are happy to debut a new clip from the documentary The Ambassador. The darkly comic doc blurs the line between straight documentary and “mockumentary”, as director Mads Brügger has developed a new style of documentary filmmaking that he calls performative journalism. The film exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations, but it does so by creating a caricature of a corrupt diplomat and throwing him into real situations with hidden cameras. This clip provides a glimpse at how Brügger pulls this off as we see a “diplomat” stumble through a speech at a public event in the Central African Republic.

Hit the jump to watch the clip. The Ambassador is currently available VOD and is playing in select theaters.

Here’s the synopsis for The Ambassador:

This darkly comic, genre-bending documentary that exposes the corrupt business of selling diplomatic titles to exploit the lucrative and limited resources of war torn, third world nations. Filmmaker/journalist/provocateur Mads Brügger (Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for The Red Chapel) uses humor in his jaw-dropping descent into one of the most dangerous places on the planet: Central African Republic. From each absurdly terrifying and hilarious situation to the next, The Ambassadoris a one-of-a-kind excursion from the man whom The Huffington Posthas called “the most provocative filmmaker in the world.”

Financed by filmmaker Lars Von Trier’s production company Zentropa (Melancholia, Klown) to expose the violence, greed and corruption of foreign businessman in the Central African Republic, Brügger developed a new documentary style that he calls “performative journalism,” in which he creates an absurd caricature of a corrupt diplomat and arms himself with a phalanx of hidden cameras, black-market credentials and razor-sharp wit. It’s part performance art, part investigative journalism, producing humor, shocking revelations and above all a tragic picture of a failed and corrupt state.